Let Love Be Your Highest Goal!

Let me show you a way of life that is best of all. You may be surprised by some of my confessions. I’m not proud of these things I’ve done, but I can honestly say now that I know they were unloving.

I’ve been interested in understanding love for a long time! I mean I really desire to understand what love means and is and looks like. In fact, I even did my master’s thesis on the topic of love because I was so fascinated with the concept.

Today, as I was studying the Bible on a whole different topic, I came across this jewel again.

Jewel of Scripture

Have you ever thought of love as a jewel? Jewels are something highly valued or admired. In the Bible, God says love is highly valued. In fact, He tells us that love is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-39).

God also tells us that we are to follow the way of love. In other words, we’re to pursue love or strive to love in everything. We need to make love our aim.

How are we to make love our goal if we don’t even know what love is?

I’m excited to share God’s meaning of love. It may surprise some of you because it has nothing to do with that “lovin’ feeling.” It has everything to do with our behaviors. God says:

• Be kind
• Be patient
• Don’t be jealous
• Don’t be boastful or proud
• Don’t be rude
• Don’t demand your own way
• Don’t be irritable
• Don’t keep score of how others wrong you
• Don’t get angry so easily
• Rejoice whenever truth wins

If you’re looking for some new goals to set, I recommend the Top 10 list above.

Are we setting these kinds of goals?

True Story Ahead

Here’s the essence of this jewel of Scripture:  Let love be your highest goal!

That means, be kind to your spouse when he or she isn’t so kind to you. So if your spouse doesn’t discuss his or her plans with you and just makes a decision say to, oh I don’t know, purchase something that’s unnecessarily expensive, just be kind. One day you may do the exact same thing, and you’ll want your spouse to be kind to you too. That means probably let you keep the expensive item you purchased. (Don’t ask me how much my living and dining room drapes cost.)

Don’t be rude to the driver who just cut in front of you. You know what I mean. Put your fingers back in the right format. Then wave “Hi” and pray a blessing of protection over that individual.

When the dishes don’t get done again, don’t be irritable or sassy mouthed. Close your mouth and keep quiet if you can’t say something with gentleness and not anger. Is it really worth damaging your relationship with your kids or spouse over dirty dishes? No is the correct answer.

Stop being jealous that someone has an updated kitchen and you don’t. They say all styles come back. But even a 70’s kitchen? And don’t be jealous if someone drives a splashy red car. She used to drive a very used Chevette that died three times from a broken timing belt. She knows she’s blessed. Rather than be jealous, how about ask her if you can ride with her in that fun red car. I bet she’ll let you. And for those who have updated kitchens, be happy for them. They probably once had a crappy 70’s kitchen too.

I hope you’re getting the point. I am the one I just wrote about above. I’ve done all those things that are unloving. Yet, I’ve been allowing God to transform me.

Love is not something we just happen to do. We have to be intentional about the way of love. But first we have to know what love really is before we can actually live the way of love.

These three things will remain:  faith, hope, and love (1 Cor. 13:13). That means they will last forever!

Of these three God says love is the greatest! (1 Cor. 13:13). He also says love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8).

If love is the greatest, love never fails, and love will last forever, then I think we need to let love be our highest goal. Don’t you?